>> jennifer said, from pennsylvania, my favorite moment was the return of justin timberlake. so talented and cute. >> scott from wisconsin said sting coming to perform. thanks to everyone who responded. "fox & friends" starts right now. >>gretchen: good morning. today is monday, february 11 already, 2013. i'm gretchen carlson. i hope you had a great weekend. we begin with extreme weather striking the south. homes wrecked, dozens injured as a tornado tears through a mississippi town. brand-new pictures as rescue workers surveys the damage. >>steve: and the grammy goes to -- british fan mumford and sons.

it's the ladies like taylor swift everybody's talking about on this monday morning. >>brian: for the second year in a row the top model on the "sports illustrated" swimsuit model is kate upton. she's all of 20. "fox & friends" starts now. >>gretchen: good morning. i hope you had a good weekend. at least here in the northeast we spent the weekend inside and then digging out. >>steve: we've got a fox news alert for you. we are getting word from a wire service that apparently pope benedict the 16th is about to resign. if you go back a year ago when he turned 85, there was some speculation that he might call it quits because of his declining health. there has been no additional update on why the pope is going to resign, but nonetheless the story is out there. we've got reporters on it. and as soon as we know why,

we will share that with you. >>gretchen: that will be huge news obviously, so we'll keep you posted. let's go to the other top story which is the extreme weather alert. now we're talking about down south. a massive tornado caught on camera ripping through the heart of has -- hattiesburg, mississippi. >> happening right outside my hotel. check this out. look at that. >>gretchen: the devastating twister leaving at least 4,200 people without power. >> dude, that's insane. >> oh my! >> it's about to hit sam's. >>gretchen: as the tornado traveled down the main street, it mangled homes, businesses and several buildings on the campus of the university of southern mississippi. >> i saw it right around, as it was crossing

interstate 59. it was coming pretty fast. my heart was racing. i've lived here my whole life. this is surreal. it is hard to take it in now. >>gretchen: the powerful winds flipped cars. the red cross center was completely destroyed. this morning the governor plans to check out all the damage. >>steve: the northeast is still digging out this morning after a massive snowstorm pummeled the area over the weekend. the blizzard drum -- dumped anywhere from a couple of inches to over three feet of snow. 200,000 still in the dark right now. the latest on the cleanup efforts later. but right now let's go to maria molina for what we can expect when we leave the house today as we go to work or go to school or just get out. >> good morning. wild weather across the country. we had that nor'easter that dumped up to 40 inches of

snow in connecticut. we had that tornado in the south. that same system that brought the tornado over the south produced blizzards in minnesota, south dakota and nebraska. a lot of weather to talk about. but i want to focus on the severe weather across portions of the southeast. we saw up to 15 tornadoes across portions of alabama and mississippi. six reports of large-size hail and 27 reports of damaging wind gusts, possibly in excess of 60 miles per hour. extreme weather out here across portions of the southeast yesterday during the afternoon hours, into the evening. the problem is this storm system is going to stall out so we'reing about to continue to see thunderstorms firing up across south carolina, georgia, alabama, mississippi and into louisiana. we're expecting a lot of heavy rain. the ground will already be saturated from the storms we've seen here, so we're expecting flooding anywhere between four to six inches of rain possible over the next several days across

portions of the southeast. at this hour we have areas of heavy rain across the carolinas, georgia into areas across the state of texas. as you head out to work this morning, you're going to need the umbrella and you could be seeing delays if you're flying across cities like atlanta. in the northeast, freezing rain and light snow will be possible. we'll keep you updated on that coming up next. >>steve: thank you very much, maria. the vatican says the pope is resigning on february 28. still no reason. >>gretchen: 4,000 cruise ship passengers stranded in the middle of the ocean after a fire breaks out aboard the boat killing the power. the cruise ship is in the gulf of mexico and running on a backup generator. carnival cruise line says the fire was put out right away and no one was hurt. a woman on board called her husband and told him what was going on. >> she was crying and said they had no power, they had no running water. they had no way to use the

bathroom. >>gretchen: the ship will be towed to mexico. it is expected to arrive on wednesday. >>gretchen: a real-life tragedy for reality tv. a crash yesterday near los angeles. all three members aboard the aircraft were killed. the cause not known. a storm generated in southern california after somebody said they spotted christopher dorner. -- a lowe's store was closed. the city announced a $1 million reward for information leading to dorner's capture. >> this is an act of domestic terrorism. this is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. >>gretchen: riverside, california, police also identified officer michael crane as the veteran officer dorner is accused

of killing in an ambush last week. he will be laid to rest later on this week. this steamy "sports illustrated," this is the cover that has david letterman fuming. that is because it was leaked before he could reveal it. kate upton is the cover girl for the second year in a row. letterman has a deal that he was supposed to announce the cover. the magazine hits stores tomorrow. those are your headlines. >>brian: last night with the grammys, looking at the grammys last night, listening to the grammys last night, anna was there to see if anybody was wearing a revealing outfit. >>gretchen: music's biggest night did not disappoint. l.l. cool j. hosting the grammys and the biggest names like kanye west

picking up grammys. taylor swift opened the show by singing the grammy-nominated song "we are never ever getting back together." >> he called and said i still love you and i'm like i'm busy opening the grammys and we're never getting back together. like ever. >>gretchen: triple threat justin timberlake debuted new songs in a retro black and white broadcast. he had amazing action we want to show you. fans had been waiting for years to see j.t. and they got did in a suit and tie. is it getting hot in here, gretchen? we love this guy. following a memo from cbs that got a lot of attention last week suggesting grammy participants not wear see-through clothing and make sure buttocks and female breasts were adequately covered, katy perry and rihanna pushed

the envelope but not like in years past. >> as you can see, i read the memo. [laughter] >> no, mama. you shall -- [speaking spanish] you look beautiful. you look gorgeous. and you inspired the memo. >>gretchen: she just decided to wear an out fit revealing a different body part. when kelly clark son won best vocal album for "stronger," she got caught on lambert's dress. >> sorry. i got stuck on lambert. there is a story and a song after alcohol. i'm just kidding, children. i got nervous speaking in front of people. >> carrie underwood wore

her face on her sleeve after winning best solo performance for "blown away." >> i thank the good lord that i'm a part of such a wonderful, talented, amazing family. my family and my amazing, perfect husband, mike. and just really glory to god. thank you so much. >> appealing across generations, sting, bruno mars and the extended marley family paid tribute to bob marley. the extended crowd was singing. folk rockers mumford and sons won album of the year. >>steve: big night. thank you very much. a busy night. >>brian: there is an on-line book out, about 80 pages, explosive as the last one by glenn rush. this tpoubgzs on what

happened -- this focuses on what happened in benghazi. sources that are not revealed are used to tell you it is not david petraeus that was responsible, not necessarily the president who was responsible. it was john brennan responsible for the assassination of our guys, including the ambassador, in benghazi. >>steve: what this ebook says is after qaddafi fell, there was a lot of vacuums. there was a lot of rebels out there. john brennan got the okay from the president to essentially launch a classified war using the joint special operations command. it was not coordinated through the pentagon, not through the c.i.a. they essentially went out there, these groups of guys went out. there were targeted kills. what they did was they really stirred up a hornet's nest. >>gretchen: part of the problem was was qaddafi was working with the united states at the time of his demise. people didn't like him because he was a ruthless

dictator. but he had turned and was helping the united states. when he was taken out, the rebel groups coming together were not necessarily all good guys. part of this book is alleging, there was a secret covert mission by the united states hand-picking each these people, and maybe that's why we haven't heard the full story about benghazi. at least that's what this 80-page book is saying. >>brian: can you imagine not telling the c.i.a. director that you're assassinating al qaeda. can you imagine not telling the ambassador. why would he be driving around the country at all basically armed without an armored car and a huge cadre of security officials if he knew that al qaeda was going to be looking for revenge because they have a habit of not liking to be assassinated? this is all going on alleged by jack murphy and brandon webb in libya at the time of 9/11, 2012. and this whole operation comes down on that day, and these guys defy orders and

try to protect the ambassador, who we find out was killed from asphyxiation, according to these guys because when they stormed the gate, they went through a safe house. they put smoke bombs underneath or what is and basically died. >>gretchen: they also allege that help did come. one of the main things we've been hearing is help didn't come soon enough. we heard leon panetta saying we needed 12 hours to be able to bring help. this has not been -- it's not been sourced completely. we don't know who the sources are. >>steve: there is a lot of skepticism regarding it. but keep in mind, a lot of the sources are spies. and for the most part spies don't like their names used in the papers. >> still ahead, we're getting word that pope benedict 16th is going to resign on february 28. we have the latest after the break. >>gretchen: the most memorable moment from this year's national prayer breakfast when a world-renowned doctor

upstaged the president with his idea about a flat tax. is that a good idea? >>brian: stuart varney thinks so. thinks so. he explains next. but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? how do you keep an older car running like new? you ask a ford customer. when they tell you that you need your oil changed you got to bring it in. if your tires need to be rotated, you have to get that done as well. jackie, tell me why somebody should bring they're car

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>>gretchen: we're getting word from the vatican that pope benedict 16 will resign at the end of the month. joining us on the phone is reporter courtney walsh. this is stunning news to begin the week here in the united states. why is the pope resigning? >> you know, the pope has announced he's going to resign on february 28. he's the first pontifficate in nearly 23 years to do that. in a recent book, he also has argued that when a pope cannot really do his duties, he should resign. and he's saying basically he tkobt have -- doesn't have the strength or energy for this. it was quite a big surprise. >>brian: we understand he made the announcement in

latin during a meeting with vatican cardinals this morning; right? >> exactly. this is a huge decision because basically it sets the stage for a conclave, a new election before the end of march. he said basically he is going to be leaving the post and it will be vacant until a new pope is elected. he recently had a consistry, he included new cardinals so that under the -- under the age of 80 will be voting. so the number of cardinals is up to the level that is appropriate for a conclave. you can sort of see looking back in hindsight that there are a couple of moves that he's made, especially this talk about his recent book about the fact that popes can and should resign if they're not up for the job. >>steve: there was some speculation last year when he turned 85 that because of his resigning health, he might resign then. how has his health been in the last year then? >> he has his good days and

his bad days. i don't know if during the christmas season you could see that at times he was greatly fatigued. but on the other hand, on the day after he would kind of perk up. over time the vatican has introduced different elements to help him during his work. for example, when he goes down the knave, he has like a platform, a floating platform so he doesn't have to walk as much. but you could see that during the christmas festivities, which are quite fatiguing, that he was tired and worn out. but he's always been the type of man, again he's quite an old man. he's been in power for -- he's been elected on april 19, 2005, so he's been around for eight years. he was born in 1927, and he feels, i guess, he's not up for the job. it is a huge historic occasion. there have been, i think, three other popes in history who have resigned. but this is the first time

in 600 years. >>brian: how soon can they get the cardinals together to vote again? >> that's a good question. we still don't really know. obviously it's going to happen as soon as possible. we don't really know exactly, but he has said that he will leave on the 28th of february and that until the conclave elects a new pope, the position will be empty. >>gretchen: very fascinating. thank you for that update. we'll undoubtedly check back in with you throughout the day as this news is just breaking right now. the first time in 600 years. >>steve: the vatican says they expect the period between the resignation at the end of this month and the election of a successor to be as brief as possible. >>brian: straight ahead, prayer wasn't the most memorable moment from this year's national prayer breakfast. it was when a world renowned neurosurgeon upstaged the president, so to speak, with his idea of a flat tax and so much more. so is that a good idea? stuart varney thinks so. he'll explain next. >>steve: plus more from the biggest night in music.

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>>gretchen: 24 minutes after the top of the hour. quick headlines. for the first time since that deadly royal prank, one of the radio day jays back on the air. the duo called a hospital where kate middleton was being treated for morning sickness and pretended to be the queen and prince charles. a nurse fell for it. that woman tragically took her own life days later. thousands are expected to attend the memorial service for chris kyle, a navy seal murdered at a texas gun range. a former marine has been

charged with killing kyle and another man and remains jailed on $3 million bond. >>steve: one of the most memorable moments from this year's national prayer breakfast wasn't a prayer at all. it was a world renowned neurosurgeon's pitch for tax reform, believe it or not. dr. ben carson explained this weekend on "fox & friends." listen. >> i alluded to god. he said i want a tithe. he didn't say if you don't have money don't give me a tithe. he didn't say if you're the richest man in the world give me triple tithes. proportionality, that is what's really fair. a percentage. and by definition, if you're a billionaire, you've got to pay a whole lot more than somebody who is poor. and that's fine. but i think everybody should put into the pot. everybody should be a part of the equation. everybody should have skin in the game. if god thought that was a good idea, i don't see why we think we're smarter than he is.

>>steve: does the host of varney and company agree? stuart varney joins us live. stewart, you do agree with him? >> i agree with dr. carson on two grounds. he was talking morality. the left went crazy when he lectured the president it the national prayer breakfast. the left said that was totally inappropriate. i disagree entirely. it is very appropriate to talk the morality of taxation at the national prayer breakfast. and i agree with dr. carson because he raised moral questions about taxation. is it moral to take more and more and more off successful people? is it moral to give our children and grandchildren massive debt? is it moral, half the population that works, to pay nothing at all? dr. carson takes the oppose moral position -- takes the opposite moral position and says the current taxation system is immoral. god wants a percentage, not a triple percentage because you're rich. he says, look, having skin

in the game is moral. that was the message from dr. carson, and i fully agree with it. that's purely on moral grounds. >>brian: it was so powerful the "wall street journal" on their op-ed page had the headline ben carson for president. >> dr. carson tkpwraous -- argues morality. there is an economic business side as well. if you have a flat tax you're probably going to bring in much more money than if you tax the rich more and more. that is the basis of flat tax. it's simple, easy, cheap to administer and it brings in more money and it is moral. >>steve: he was talking about why are we going to punish the billionaire, the billionaire with $10 billion who pays $1 billion, why are you going to punish that guy? he's already kicked in $1 billion. >> if god wants a percentage, who are we to argue with god? >>steve: we'll be watching stuart varney just

about three hours from now on the fox business channel. >>brian: stunning fox news alert. pope benedict is about to resign. the first pope to resign in 600 years. we have brand-new information from the vatican we will share with you after the break. plus, if you have never ever checked the fine print on your credit -- *f, you probably should. a new report out today finds there are millions of mistakes that you cannot remove. and that story straight ahead. first, happy birthday to jennifer aniston. she's our friend. she's 44. >> because we'll appreciate it more when she's gone? it more when she's gone? [laughter] [ dylan ] this is one way to keep your underwear clean. this is another! ta-daa! try charmin ultra strong. it cleans so well and you can use up to four times less than the leading value brand. oh! there it is. thanks son. hey! [ female announcer ] charmin ultra strong has a duraclean texture

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>>gretchen: fox news alert this morning. the vatican saying pope benedict xvi is resigning at the end of this month. for more let's go to fox news contributor father jonathan morris. he joins us by phone. what's going on? >> i was just about getting on a plane when i got the phone call. it's the phone call you would never ever expect to get. that is not that the pope has passed, but the pope has resigned. this is stunning. it is a big surprise even to the closest vatican watchers. >>gretchen: why though?

i mean not why are you surprised, but why is he resigning? >> if you guys have more breaking news on that, you fill me in because i'm just getting this as you are. >>brian: we can interrupt you now and tell you that the vatican is reporting at 85 years old a lack of strength. >>steve: just doesn't have enough juice to do the job essentially. >> he has said in the past that if he got to a point in which physically or psychologically, mentally he was unable to fulfill the task, he would resign. now keep in mind, he watched as a close advisor and close friend, john paul ii, in his last years as pope, and he saw not only the angst that john paul ii went through during that time of suffering, but he also saw how the vatican works when there's a pope that's not able to at his full capacity to do his

job. something he obviously had in mind in the past that he could do it. it's very surprising he did. >>steve: father jonathan are you suggesting that the pope saw pope john paul ii in his declining years and said the people of the catholic community need a pope who's at 100% or as close to it as possible, so if i ever get to that stage i'm going to call it quits, and that's what he's doing? >> you know, it seems that that is a big part of his decision. we know how close he was to john paul ii. keep in mind, though, the pope is not a manager. this is why it's so shocking. the pope is not first and foremost the manager. he's the defender of the faith, protecting or guarding the teaching of the church and of the gospel. so you don't need somebody who is a stellar manager at his full capacity necessarily. and that's why in the past popes have died in their

office. because it's more important to make sure there's one person at the helm who's making sure that the teaching of the bible, the teachings of the first church, the teachings of the catholic faith are being taught in their integrity. >>brian: father john johnathan, we know the process of the cardinals getting together to elect a new pope. he told the cardinals this morning. how soon do you believe until a group of cardinals get together, conclave gets together and votes on a new guy? >> this is going to be different than any conclave in recent history because there is no rush to fill the spot, because there's an active pope right now. so i think they're going to take some time. i don't know if it's been reported the date of resignation. >>gretchen: it is. february 28. >> that's a lot of time, relatively speaking,

compared to previous conclaves. we remember that john paul ii, shortly after his death, the cardinals were there and began their meeting. >>gretchen: do you know the average age of the cardinals? would they be inclined to select somebody who is younger, or is that seen as not something that you do because you select somebody who has much more experience? >> well, we have two recent examples that are different. one, john paul ii was made pope at a very young age relatively speaking. and pope benedict, 85, already past the normal retirement age of a priest being elected at 78 years old. we're going to have lots of time to talk about who will be the next pope and what he's going to look like, where he's going to be coming from, what his age will be. but this is a time that is certainly an unforgettable

moment in the history of the church. >>brian: it's hard to imagine a cardinal with more charisma and presence than the one we have here, cardinal dolan. do you think he's a legitimate contender? >> you know, he would respond, would my mother think so? he is such a likable, loving, good, holy man. i don't really know. but he'll be there putting his vote in to the next pope. >>steve: we just got a statement. this is what the pope said earlier today in latin. it's been translated. after having repeatedly examined my conscience before god, i have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advantage are no longer suited to an adequate

exercise of the petrine ministry. >> times have changed and this age of communication has also changed. in the past when a pope is in the vatican behind the wall and he's, as i said, sprefrbg -- preserving the doctrine of the faith and teaching and writing, that's what he did. nowadays the pope is sending out tweets. >>gretchen: there is a twitter for the pope who would have ever thunk that. >> the fact that he's making this statement i find to be incredibly humble. i find it to be a positive sign of changing with the times. >>gretchen: it's interesting because a lot of times people don't go out on top, so to speak, and this is a pure example of humility in that sense. father jonathan we've got to wrap it up. thank you for your time. >>steve: 22 minutes before the top of the hour

on this busy monday morning. extreme weather striking the south overnight. look at this. homes wrecked, dozens injured as a giant tornado tore through a mississippi city. that's hattiesburg down there. this morning residents in that town are waking up to a day of removing trees, patching roofs and giving thanks for surviving. maria molina has been tracking these storms all night long. maria, this is a big one. >> yes, and a littlerly in the season -- and a little early in the season. typically we see storms peak during april, may and june. today we're going to be seeing thunderstorms but thankfully not too much severe weather across portions of the southeast. flooding will be a concern during the next several days as six inches of rain could fall out here in alabama and mississippi. there is another concern. moisture moving in. during the afternoon hours it should be mild enough that most areas should be receiving plain old rain

but during the morning hours, light snow and also freezing snow across the area. watch out for a slippery morning commute across portions of northern new jersey, portions of the tristate, across parts of connecticut, upstate new york and pennsylvania. in the north central, blizzard warnings still in effect. gusts over 40 miles per hour. most of the snow is over and done with across this section of the country. in minnesota, more than a foot of snow reported in some areas. as all of this wasn't enough, we're talking about six inches of snow possible across the texas panhandle and the oklahoma panhandle as we head into late tonight. >>steve: they had beautiful weather in texas yesterday. maria, we thank you very much. busy weather morning. >>gretchen: next on the rundown, it would have created thousands of jobs, but newly pointed secretary of state john kerry voted against the keystone pipeline. is he now, though, having another famous flip-flop? congressman fred upton is going to weigh in on that. >>brian: countries like russia and china are

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>>brian: let me tell you what's happening in sports. lebron james making history against the lakers. ep set a heat record by scoring at least 30 points five games in a row. he's been unbelievable. lebron became the third player with at least 30 points and 60% shooting in five straight games. anyone else on that team? the heat won 107-97. they won five in a row. lindsey vonn undergoing successful surgery following this horrifying crash. the surgery was to repair torn ligaments in her knee. the skater broke a bone in the lower leg. doctors expect von to make

a full recovery and be able to ski again, nbc hopes, ready for the olympics. >>gretchen: john kerry once voted against the keystone pipeline, a project that would have created thousands of jobs. >>steve: but the former senator might be ready to change his mind. listen. >> with respect to keystone, secretary clinton put in place a very open and transparent process which i am committed to seeing through. i can guarantee you that it will be fair and transparent, accountable. and we hope that we will be able to be in a position to make an announcement in the near term. >>gretchen: here to weigh in, michigan's republican representative fred upton, who by the way, wants us to call him fred. i'm going to do what you want. all right, fred, what do you think of john kerry? is he going to flip-flop on this and now be in favor of the keystone pipeline? >> it's been four and a

half years they have been studying this. we know the safest way to transport this oil is by pipeline. canada is going to increase production to four million barrels per day before the end of the decade. they are going to send it either to china or build a pipeline east to the atlantic and put it on a boat to send it to new orleans. isn't it better to put it on a pipeline that is going to be more efficient and getting it to the right place? >>brian: it is as frustrating following governor cuomo trying to frack in the u.s. who keeps saying we'll have another study when everyone is saying there is no problem. what about people in the u.s. saying that is the type of oil we need? >> it is going to be produced no matter what. we've seen gasoline prices more than double since the president took office, up 20 cents just in the last couple of weeks. we want to be north american energy-nonpartisan, this is our friend -- energy-independent, this is our friend, the canadians. >>gretchen: let's talk about why it's so important

what john kerry thinks about it. the secretary of state has control over whether or not this should move forward. we all know before the election, secretary clinton and the president said that now was not the time to make the decision. people thought that was a political move. now that the election is over, what will the secretary of state do? >> the difficulty is based on what the president said the day he was sworn in at the inaugural -- he talked a lot about climate change and everything else -- this will send a bad signal to the enviros who strongly supported the president to get into office. they're not going to want this project approved, which is why it's going to be such a difficult decision when they decide to make it. >>brian: you do what's in the best interest of the country, you do it. if you do what's in the best interest of the environmentalists, you don't. it's amazing, for the second year in a row your niece is on the cover of "sports illustrated." >>gretchen: what a transition. >>brian: i met her last

week. what a lovely person? >> i'm a proud uncle. >>gretchen: fantastic. i guess that's all you have to say when you see that cover. you could say wow or you could say you're a proud uncle. >>brian: at 20 years old. not bad. >>gretchen: congressman, thanks so much for your thoughts especially getting up so early on a monday morning. >>brian: straight ahead, we're following a fox news alert, a surprise, stunning announcement from the vatican. pope benedict about to resign. we have the breaking details next. >>gretchen: countries like russia and china are ramping up their militaries but we're cutting ours. is this putting us at risk? we're going to ask colonel tony schaffer right after the break. [ emale announcer ] ready to mix things up with lean cuisine? try our entrees, snacks and new salads. wild salmon with basil, garlic chicken spring rolls, and now salads, like asian-style chicken. enjoy 100 delicious varieties under 400 calories.

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>>steve: this is a stunning fox news a letter. moments ago fox news confirming pope benedict xvi is resigning. he will step down the last day of this month. the vatican making a statement about the sudden resignation. courtney walsh joins us live on the phone from rome with more. >> at the moment the papal spokesman is giving a press conference explaining the pope's comments saying he couldn't do his mission anymore and he felt it was his duty to step down. he also said in the past couple of months it's been very rigorous. i don't know if you all recall, he's gone through sort of a shock with the butler scandal and other problems in the past couple of months that he said he was greatly fatigued. father lombardi is also talking about the fact that this is actually quite a surprise to us. but the pope has thought about this for a long time and he's also written about it in his book "light of the world" in which he said

basically the pope has the right to resign if he's not up to the job. and, again, quite a bit of shock to all of us here, but for those inside the vatican, they say he's very serene. it's been a long, thought-out decision and he's very content and serene. >>steve: once again the pope resigning, effective february 28. courtney walsh in rome, thank you very much. stunning. brian, over to you. >>brian: the clock is ticking. unless congress cuts a deal on our debt, the u.s. military will bear the brunt of deep automatic cuts. can we afford that with news russia and china are ramping up defense spending? retired colonel tony shaffer with us. with us losing $43 billion in our budget, do you think we're equipped if all these countries are ramping up and decide to turn their cross hairs to us?

>> you've got to figure out if they are really threats. we have not done that. throwing money to education doesn't make people smarter. throwing money to defense doesn't make us effective. we have to have an effective defense. if we grant, if we really believe they are threats, validate them as threats and vector the money into threats. we're funding a cold war legacy machine. we won the cold war back in 1990, but part of the problem is this. instead of actually figuring out what we need to do to defend the american people to establish an effective defense, we have a layered defense which is focused on the cold war. we've got to break that paradigm and start spending money on real threats and spend the money on that vector, not on doing what we've always done. >>brian: this actually cuts to the core with you. we're cutting $85 billion out, $43 billion from the pentagon in particular, the one part of the government that has been working and effective and should be saluted. >> i agree with you.

this is why i'm getting upset, cutting a battle group going, threatening to cut pay. the bottom line is the pentagon has the money. these funds are operational funds. they can do it. what they're trying to do is not do what is necessary to make the defense stronger. they want to perpetuate this continuation of what they've always done. i dispute what the chairman and joint chiefs said and despite what secretary panetta said, we can do better. we must do better because we are not effectively spending the money. something called the joint i.e.d. defeat organization, the only thing they defeated over the past eight years it existed is cutting their budget. they are not actually putting things out there which actually help our troops. that's the problem with the way we're doing business now. >>brian: you say we've got to assess the threats. these cyber attacks on us are evidence of that. we see them building up their navy, not to get on japan to take on us.

we see what's happening with russia. they're not doing that to keep syria, assad in power. they're doing it to battle us. what if these guys say i agree with one thing: america is the problem. >> we've got to look at why they're spending the money. on china real quick, china is spending as much money on trying to find sources of potable water as defense. simply looking at defense numbers doesn't make you safer if you try to spend one for one. you've got to understand the threat. the chinese are in our backyard cyber wise, but we have to understand why they're doing it and be effective in countering it. spending money the way we are now does not vector the money to where it needs to be. we need to be where we need to be regarding spending. that is what we're not doing yet. >>brian: we should lean it out, make it more efficient but at the same time don't starve it. it seems like we're starving it. >> you have to be effective in where you're spending the money. >>brian: always great to have you on.

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comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. >> gretchen: good morning, everybody. today is monday, february 11, 2013. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time with us tote. shocking announcement, pope benedict resigning at the end of this month. the breaking details in a live report straight ahead. >> brian: vicious tornadoes ripping through mississippi. homes destroyed, dozens injured. residents there still have more to fear. we have the latest coming right up. >> steve: plus, in other news, it's a rough life being a top dog. we're going behind the scenes at the westminster dog show with a look at how the vips, the very important pooches, are getting ready for their big debut. "fox & friends" hour two for monday starts right now.

>> steve: what a story. we start with a stunning fox news alert. big news out of the vatican. pope benedict xvi announcing he will resign at the end of this month. fox news senior foreign affairs cover spoken. apparently the pope's brother said the pope's doctor said no more transatlantic flights four which is a sign that he is weak. >> that, and a lot more, folks. stunning news coming from the vatican. just literally in the past hour or two. pope benedict xvi announcing today that he'll be resigning office. he will be resigning his position in the vatican on february 28. he said he didn't have the strength to fulfill the duties of his office. he said he is aware of the seriousness of his act, that is the act of resignation. but he would renounce what is called the ministry of the bishop of rome, the papacy.

he said he's resigning in full freedom. no one is forcing him to. but he also said that his strength has deteriorated in the last few months. advanced age is cited, incapacity to adequately fulfill the mission of the pope. all this, folks, sets up another change in the vatican. another change for the billion-plus catholic followers of the vatican. a conclave, that's an election, consisting of the cardinals, the religion, will meet in rome to decide on a new pope. that will happen before the end of march. again, there had been reports in the past couple of months that his health had been failing, that he had difficulty reading text, and he had in the past suggested if popes had problem in office with their health, that, in fact, that they should step down. he followed his own message. in fact, he will be stepping down less than eight years into his papacy.

to show how historic this is, guys, the last time this happened was 600 years ago. that happened to be pope gregory in the year 1415. we just heard a press conference from vatican officials in the past ten minutes or so and they looked surprised. they said they got this information this morning. so secrecy is the name of the game in the vatican. benedict is his name. he is a german. he was a strong conservative. they called him the enforcer in the church prior to becoming a pope. the pope's rotweiler, referring to a dog, that's how he was referred to as well. the choice of ratzinger as pope was pretty much expected. but it took a couple of elections for him to be named. when he was named, then he took overment again, though, his papacy has been marked by some scandal. certainly the ongoing child abuse scandals that he has had

to look after. he has had to watch during his slightly under eight years in the job. but also that was an issue that had been taking up his time prior to that, too. he's decided now to stop perhaps -- as we ho followed the papacy and the vatican affairs over the years can also tell you, he probably -- you probably remember pope john paul ii and all those years his failing health and struggling ability to fulfill the job and perhaps pope benedict looked at the segly of the -- legacy of the past pope and said he did not want to go through this. he wanted to pull out right now. so now at the age of 85, he says he will step down from his position at the end of the month, clearing the way for a new pope. that has got people already wondering who might it be from. perhaps from africa, where there is a huge growth in the catholic religion. we'll be watching that. that's in the next weeks and

month to come. >> steve: indeed. i wouldn't be surprised if we saw a vegas line on who the new pope would be. all right. greg palkot live in london, thank you. >> gretchen: the other big story, extreme weather alert. massive tornado tearing through the heart of hatties burg, mississippi. >> it's happening right outside my hotel. look at that! look that thing, dude! >> gretchen: they found trees severely damaged homes and injured more than a dozen people. maria molina has been tracking the storm and has photos of the damage. >> good morning. good to see you. it was a very dangerous weekend across portions of the south. we saw severe weather, up to 15 tornadoes reported. 27 reports of damaging wind gusts, in excess of 60 miles an hour. hail in portion of alabama, mississippi, louisiana seeing

severe weather and eastern portions of the state of texas. i want to show you those pictures coming out of the hattiesburg area. portions of that exact that town. very unfortunate situation, stunning images. you can see the car turned over, trees were brought down, power lines down. we also got reports of some damage to the american red cross office for the mississippi region, which is in hattiesburg. one of the tweets read, our hattiesburg office was damaged but no staff injured. service delivery will not be affected. that's a little bit of good news out of that area. other counties that were impacted were lawrence, marion, lamar and wayne counties in mississippi. out of alabama, clark and washington counties also reporting some damage in the form of trees down, power lines similar to what you saw across those images and homes damaged. very dangerous situation we saw over the weekend on sunday. to make matters worse, a lot of heavy forecast this week across

the same area, up to six inches of rain possible. so flooding is going to be another concern. we'll keep an eye on this over the next couple of days. >> gretchen: thanks so much for that update. now the rest of your headlines. 4,000 cruise ship passengers stranded in the middle of the ocean after a fire breaks out, killing the power. it's in the gulf of mexico. carnival cruise lines said the fire was put out right away, no one hurt. a woman on board called her husband, told him something was going on. >> she was crying and stuff and said they had no power. they had no returning water they have no way to use the bathroom. >> gretchen: the ship will be towed to mexico. it's expected to arrive on wednesday. passengers will then be flown to the united states. in california, the faa investigating a deadly helicopter crash near los angeles. we're told the crew was filming the new reality show for the discovery channel when it went down. all three people on board were

killed. today american hero will be honored. arm sergeant clinton ignored his battle wounds to take out the enemy and rescue injured soldiers during a 13-hour fire fight in afghanistan. he will be receiving the medal of honor from president obama. he will be only the four living service member awarded the nation's top honor for courage in iraq or afghanistan. he retired from the army in 2011. those are your headlines. >> steve: meanwhile, the grammys full of big star and bigger fashion states last night and anna kooiman is here to break down the good, bad and just plain bizarre from last night. >> good morning. new faces like the band fun and the record industry's biggest names like kanye west and adele picking up trophies last night. folk rockers millenniumford and son winning album of the year for "baseball." country pop star taylor swift opened up the show, music's biggest night, showing off her dancing skills, sex appealer.

true fashion, she gave a zinger to an ex lover, while singing this gram knee nominated song "we have never ever getting back together." fashion a big lie height. cbs did send out a memo last week that got a lot of attention, suggesting participants not show too much skin. jennifer lopez and many others still pushed the envelope. >> so as you can see, i read the memo. [ laughter ] >> no, mama. you are -- (speaking spanish). >> you look beautiful, you look gorgeous and you inspired the memo. >> yikes. >> gretchen: he had to start speaking in spanish. kelly woreman showed off her hot body, katy perry revealed a good bit of her chest with a plunging neck line. rihanna had a two piece outfit with her tatas about falling

out. she was sing ago bob majerle tribute. gossip magazine has been talking about rihanna and chris brown rekindling their romance. well, they showed the world exactly where they stand. getting cozy in the crowds, attending the grammys last night. all right. back to you. >> brian: that cozy after smashing your porsche into a wall. >> gretchen: and many other reasons why people question the relationship. thanks so much. coming up, while countries like russia and china are ramping up their military, we're getting ours. is this putting our national security at risk? >> brian: then just how closely do you look at your credit report? it turns out there are millions of mistakes on them and there is very little you can do to fix it unless you watch us [ male announcer ] what are happy kids made of? bikes and balloons,

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>> brian: time is running out unless congress cuts a keel on our debt, the u.s. military set to bear the brunt of automatic cuts. can we avoid that, weapon our adversaries like russia, high china, muslim brotherhood getting stronger? joining us right now, the man who headed up the bin laden unit. give us an idea of what it will be like if we cut $43 billion out of the pentagon, this has already been cut down. >> i think it's disasterous situation for us. i think they could probably spend their money smarter in someplace, but clearly the military is coming out of two wars which our political leaders chose to lose. their base of equipment and other kinds of materials are worn out. all of that needs to be replaced. the other thing that i think doesn't get enough attention is if you weaken the military, which this will certainly do, it really puts a lot more pressure on an intelligence community that's already stretched to the limit. if we're weak, we have to have

extraordinarily good intelligence to know when to apply that military force and where. so the cuts in the budget are just disastrous across the board, just not for the military, but for the national security community across the board. >> brian: in your estimation, do you believe that russia and china are really our friends, just economic competitors like it seems as though the white house views it? >> certainly, in many ways the chinese own us. we couldn't go to war with them because we would have to borrow money from them in order to wage the war. in terms of russia, mr. obama made it clear in his first term that if he was reelected, he told putin that he would help cut the american nuclear deterrent and other forms of arms that the russians don't like. so this seems to me all part of a plan to weaken america, make us less of a player in the world and create more problems,

whether intentionally or not, it will create more problems and more dead americans. >> brian: a lot of people under the impression to take on al-qaeda, the muslim brotherhood now running places like egypt. that's not going to be as expensive as the traditional wars like world war ii. could it be a costly war that we're cutting back on? >> well, we're facing against the muslim brotherhood and the islamist generally much more of a world war than in 2001. the important thing about the muslim brotherhood government and the lack of a government in libya, islamist government that's coming in syria is it makes the operational environment much easier for al-qaeda and its allies. they can operate in cairo. they can have public demonstrations in cairo with mubarak gone and it doesn't hurt them. they don't get arrested or chased out of the country. so the changing middle east has played to the strengths of al-qaeda and certainly in terms of the pressure on them, except for pakistan, the pressure is off. >> brian: when you mentioned on the radio show to me that you're worried about your grandchildren

and the world in which we are right now, we're cutting back and almost saying the enemy doesn't exist. >> well, it's not almost, brian. people like john brennan and the president, who have gone out of their way to say that jihad is like a rotary club for the world. they're just self-improving muslims. they've gone out of the way to make americans believe the danger and the threat in the world is reduced. and the combination of that lie with the cuts in the defense budget are certainly not good news for american security. >> brian: john brennan, we just saw video of him. he's poised to become the next security director. you know him personally. you work with him. what kind of c.i.a. guy will he be? >> he'll be a yes man to the president. he'll do whatever the president says. he'll say whatever lies the president wants him to. and he promised, it seemed to me when he talked to that senator about extraordinary rendition

and interrogation that he basically promised that senator that he'll conduct a witch hunt when he gets to the agency, which, of course, at a time when intelligence is super important, that's just not what you need from the director of the c.i.a. >> brian: especially a guy that's on record supporting enhanced interrogation in 2007 and saw the benefits of it up close from 2001 on. >> sir, it will be extraordinary. this is probably the only time we have a documented liar who may be appointed director of the central intelligence agency. it's very doubtful he could pass a polygraph anymore in terms of being asked questions about what he said and what he didn't say. >> brian: in 1998 when we had bin laden in our sights, he said to saxby chambliss, we didn't have a good shot at him. there is nobody else who thought we should take out bin laiden and thought the chance of success would be great. what's the truth as you see it? >> if chambliss had said to him, are you sure, mr. brennan, that

there are no documents in the 9-11 commission's archive that show that the special operations command had approved of this operation and said that they couldn't do any better than would have been done by the military itself? brennan said no, he's lying, because those documents exist. they wanted to go to the saudis, have the saudis do our bidding because they were afraid of negative media attention if we tried to get bin laiden and we failed. >> brian: always great to have you on. good luck with your upcoming book, which is due out when? >> toward the end of the summer, sir. thank you. >> brian: it's on bin laden. correct? >> no, it's going to be about nonintervention and the american founders. >> brian: oh, okay. thank you very much, michael. appreciate it. >> thank you, sir. >> brian: coming up straight ahead, do you want to be rich? our next guest can show you how to go from just an ordinary employee to the office mvp.

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>> steve: money in the bank. all right. nice graphic. do you know what it takes to become your office's mvp? >> gretchen: our next guest is here to tell us exactly how you can earn title of most valuable performer at your job. entrepreneur and author of "i will teach you to be rich" joins

us now. good to see you. >> good morning to you. >> gretchen: so everyone wants to be the mvp if it gets them in the headed in the right direction for financial security, right? >> that's right. it's so funny because many of us believe we were raised thinking if i just do my job well, that's enough. that's really not enough. we know plenty of people who toil in the corner work on their excel and no one recognizes it. so there is other strategies you can use to get to the top. >> steve: strategy number one, get your boss to help you grow. what you suggest is is that you get on their radar by doing what? >> you can ask them to invest in your education. bosses get a bad rap a lot of teams, but they're very reasonable. if you say, i found this book, i think it will help me do my job better or i found this software or i'd love to attend this conference, a lot of times they'll be happy to fork over company money. you become more valuable. >> steve: so start small. if you say, hey, i think i'd be more valuable if you pay for

four years of colombia for me -- >> that might not work. simple $10 book might work first. and you can work your way up to baby steps. >> gretchen: what do you mean by become the office honey bee? >> we sit in the corner and work on the things we work out and don't cross pollenate. there are plenty others, laterally and more higher than us. what we should be doing is taking people out to lunch, at least once week. just send an e-mail say, hey, i'm interested in what you do. i'd love to know how you got here. what are your challenges. and in that way you cross pollenate. you become more valuable. >> gretchen: abuse you used to do this in college. you took out ceo's to lunch. >> i was a weirdo. they would always go out. turns out most people don't e-mail other people and they're happy to go and help other people know what's going on. >> steve: you suggest not just the boss, but all throughout the organization so if there is ever a time where they got to let somebody go, you're absolutely bullet proof. also you say tap into your alumni network. >> yes, the company one. if you work with people who

worked before you and left, they will be more than happy to talk to you. once they left the company, they're very honest with you. if you say what do you think about this, they'll tell but it. if you want to change to another company, you now have a network of allies outside of your company. >> gretchen: very interesting tips. he wrote book "i will teach you to be rich." why to see you. >> great to see you. >> steve: straight ahead, we continue to follow a fox news alert out of the vatican. the sudden announcement about an hour and a half ago that the pope is about to resign. the vatican spokesman will be here coming up next. >> gretchen: plus, we're going behind the scenes at the westminster dog show with a look how the vips are getting ready for their big debut. the finals are tomorrow night lobsterfest is the king of all promotions.

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>> gretchen: fox news alert this morning. shocking news out of the vatican. pope benedict xvi, the first upon active in 600 years will resign. he says he's no longer strong enough to carry on. we will have a live report coming out of rome moments away. >> brian: this happens only every 600 years. >> steve: this is really something. greg burke is the vatican spokesperson and once upon a time he was for many years a fox news correspondent based in rome.

good morning to you. >> good morning. >> steve: greg, you've been a reporter for a very long time now. you're a spokesman. did you see this coming? >> well, i didn't see it coming, but i warned some people, doing my job for fox a couple years ago issues i said, hey, guys. in one of the pope's own books, he did say this is a possibility. he says if a pope, he didn't refer to himself, but he says if a pope feels that he's not up to the job physically, that he can't do it, it is a very demanding job, then in those cases not only could he resign, but that he should resign. so i don't want to say i wasn't surprised. i certainly was surprised when i found out this morning a little while before everybody else. i was surprised, but i wasn't shocked. >> gretchen: greg, tell us how the role of the pope in this generation may have changed. we spoke to father jonathan a little earlier. he said this hasn't happened because the pope was really sitting in the back room studying the scripture and the bible.

but how has social media or just the way in which we live in this world changed the role of the pope where he would feel that resigning is necessary? >> well, one of the things people live a lot longer. that's certainly true. and the pope will be 86 in april of the he has an older brother who is in his early 90s. so he stands to live longer, although diminished. i tell people, people have been asking me obviously for months how is the pope doing? he's getting old. i say, guys, the pope is just like my dad. my dad is actually a little older than the pope. i said he's just like my dad. he's there. he's mentally very sharp. but physically, obviously he's getting tired. he's not the same. i used to invite my dad to new york every year and a couple years ago, i said boy, this is getting more and more difficult for him. and i think pope felt that way and one of the things you expect the pope to travel and i think

those kind of things are very tiring for the pope. >> brian: do you see a change in the guy that's 85 from the one that took over in 2005? you've seen him up close on a regular basis. >> yeah. hi, brian. the change i see, i think is basically, you know, slow to step, you know. it's a gradual. i stithy a lot of people were shocked like oh, my gosh, what happened? it's the grave. and no, i don't believe it is. i think we've seen some things that they looks a little more tired. you see him, he doesn't walk as well. doesn't manage steps as well. that kind of thing. but there had been nothing really -- it hasn't been drastic. it has been just a gradual slowdown. >> steve: let's talk a little bit about the logistics. so the last day of this month he will resign. then will he take part in the conclave to figure out who will replace him? also, after that, where is going to live? >> okay. all good questions.

he serves until the 28th actually, to be very precise, 8:00 p.m. rome time on theth, then begins the rome without a pope. then everything happens just like last time, with the difference you don't have the mourning days fort dead pope. he will not take part in the conclave. that's important to realize. you don't have the former pope, trying to wrangle or decide who will be the next pope. and what i've been told is he's going to live on vatican grounds. there's a monastery where some contemplative nuns had been living. they had been doing renovations on it a few months ago and the pope will move into that. so he'll be at peace to do what he's wanted to do for a long time, which is read and pray. >> brian: is there a chance that he just wants to retire and not be the pope anymore and just like enjoy his last years? >> well, i think that is part of the deal.

he had -- he was interviewed with john moody around 1994 and he had said it's no secret that he wanted to go back to german at that point but pope john paul ii wouldn't let him. now he'll have the chance to do that. he said in the statement he made today, he said he did this obviously after much reflection. this isn't somebody fleeing from the weight of the job. he truly feels, he said, i made an examination of conscience. he truly feels before god that he doesn't have the strength to do it, and so to his credit, i think he will finally be able to do what he wanted to do for a long time in his retirement, read and pray. >> gretchen: brings me back to the original sort of question, which is has the role of the pope in society changed as far as somebody who feels like they're not up to it? >> well, i think it has changed in the sense that pope jonathan

hunt -- pope john paul. he wasn't going to try to copy that. the modern world i think does put on -- you know, being spoken a very demanding job in terms of the number of people you have to see and things do and physically that takes its toll on somebody. >> steve: certainly, there has famously been a scandal in the last year or so with his butler releasing that stuff. this has been a hard couple of years on the pope. >> yeah. there is no doubt about that. i think physical israeli -- physically is the main thing. but obviously the weight of the job in itself, even in the best of days, those scandals, no nothing, and he lived through a couple tough ones. no scandals, no nothing, it's a difficult job for what you have. what you're carrying on your shoulders. off billion catholics around the world and you're their leader. >> brian: it turns out if you believe the twitterverse, his

brother and chief of staff known for a couple of months he was going to do this. >> that could be true. certainly known for several weeks that this is happening, yeah. >> steve: all right. former fox news correspondent and, of course, now the spokesperson for the vatican, greg burke, thank you very much for giving us the news. >> good to talk to you again. >> steve: all right. wow. meanwhile, other big story, a lot of people digging out after extreme weather pummeled the northeast over the weekend. big blizzard dumped from a dust not guilty some spots to over three feet of snow, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people, more than 200,000 still in the dark with the hardest hit areas, massachusetts. that's where molly line is, near the rock of plymouth with an update. good morning to you. >> good morning, steve, brian, and gretchen. if the pilgrims landed here today, they probably would have headed south because it's still freezing cold and kind of like the old days. there are a lot of people here without power.

100,000 people still without power across massachusetts and the utilities, two biggest providers, national grid and instar saying that in some cases, not 'til tuesday. and no others, there may be a few stragglers that have their power out as of thursday of this week. that's almost a week without power. a lady drove up a couple weeks ago and said it was 35 degrees in her house. so a lot of trouble. the commute is another focus today. the trains are running again in boston. but it's expected to rain. that could mean a really sloppy commute, a dangerous commute as people head into the city. the snow banks on the side of the road, still very, very high. a lot of the ramps are still covered, so you can't see around them, merging could be a problem. there is still a lot of dangers to deal with, although the roads, a lot of the roads look pretty good. the highways look pretty good. the side roads, still a big mess. still a lot of clean-up to go. back to you. >> steve: molly line, thank you very much. >> gretchen: now to the rest of the headlines for today. a mistake on your credit record can cost you money. it can even increase the interest you pay on loans and

prevent from you land ago job. now a new government report out says as many as 40 million americans have mistakes and can't get them removed. not to mention the people who are supposed to check the legitimacy of the report are in a different country. >> that you consider yourself investigators? >> no. >> did you have any way to investigate these claims? >> no. you can call the person. >> you can't pick up the phone and call? >> no. >> did you e-mail them? >> no. >> steve: man. >> gretchen: 20 million of the mistakes are said to be major. >> brian: texas governor rick perry starting a battle for business with california. >> building a business is tough. but i hear building a business in california is next to impossible. this is texas governor rick perry and i have a message for california businesses. come check out texas. >> brian: taking advantage of recent tax hikes, perry released a radio ad in california promising better business conditions for owners.

he taught touts the no state income tax, no state income tax and flexible business regulations. california governor jerry brown not worried, telling reporters, quote, this is a not serious guy. this is not a serious story. it's barely, well, whatever. >> steve: yeah, thanks, jerry. meanwhile, you would think techies would notice if something was photo shopped. but apparently nobody did. a wanna be silicon valley socialite faked her way to the top because of it. shirley hornstein posted this picture of herself with singer actor justin timberlake. no. that was andy sandburg and another with andy sandburg. we've got the pictures back where she's claim to go have met them at parties across san francisco. the problem is, she never met them and used her so-called connections to get meetings and gigs. her plan was foiled when she metamersed with the founder of napster who is suing her for the false claim.

don't photo shop is the lesson here. >> gretchen: a dog with a nearly man-like face attracted quite a bit of attention. the indiana shelt that are rescued him, the poodle shih tzu mix went viral last week. now it turns out a lot of people want to take tonic home. now we're hearing that the shelter has been flooded with more than 350 applications to adopt the human faced dog. >> steve: that's nice. meanwhile, these dogs are about to make their big debut at the westminster dog show. we go behind the scenes. >> gretchen: a world renowned doctor upstages a president at the national prayer breakfast last week, telling washington it needs a common sense approach. but will lawmakers actually hear the message? >> brian: trivia question of the day brought to you by aflac. born on this day in 1936, this smoky and the bandit star was the first to guest host the

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well it wasn't too hard at all." i love breads. you can still eat bread. i love my sweets. i can still have a cookie on weight watchers. i love the barcode scanner. occasionally, i'll use it at the bar. of course! that's what it's for, right? bar code. oh i think i'm never going there again. i feel healthy. and just...young again. [ female announcer ] weight watchers online. the power of weight watchers completely online. join for free today. i'm here to pick up some cacti. it should be under stephens. the verizon share everything plan for small business. get a shareable pool of data... got enough joshua trees? ... on up to 25 devices. so you can spend less time... yea, the golden barrels... managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. looks like we're going to need to order more agaves... ah! oh! ow! ... and more bandages. that's powerful. sharble data plus unlimited talk and text. now save $50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola. just begin with america's favorite soups.

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government known as special interest, basically anything that doesn't make any sense, it's because of the special interest group involved. we need to get back to a point where we're for and by the people and we need to do things beneficial for the people. and we've just totally gotten away from that. >> steve: he's right. will washington get the message? let's talk to don peels, a real estate entrepreneur and a fund-raiser for president obama. joins us live in our new york studio. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> steve: the "wall street journal" had an editorial on saturday. it said ben carson for president because of what he said at the national prayer breakfast. what do you think about his message where the president was just sitting five, ten feet away, yet he was talking about health care reform, how it's too expensive, doesn't work right now. talking about debt and taxes. >> i think what he's saying a lot of americans are feeling. that is that our government is very distracted. we could distract it on issues such as tax rates, on the upper income, that they're really not going to have meaningful change.

but we keep getting away from real comprehensive reform. and that's reform of social services, reform of entitlements, reform of tax structure. we're just talking about these issues, but not doing anything. >> steve: one of the things that dr. carson was talking about was he was talking about fairness. you know, everybody should have some skin in the game. in washington, there are a lot of people on your side who say, the millionaires and billionaires, they got to pay more. but dr. carson was talk being why do we punish those people? if somebody made ten billion dollars and they put 10% into the government, tithing, that was his connection to the prayer breakfast, he said, why do we punish them any more? it seems like it's fair. the guy just put in a billion dollars. >> look, i'm a big believer in upward mobility in this country. i think that's part of what made our country the great nation we have and we should reward success. not penalize it. i think what's also happening is this vilification of success, again, through the political

process of this last election cycle, there was a lot of that going on. i think what dr. carson is saying is that the country should be rewarding success. and i believe that. >> steve: and dr. carson was talking about morality and to saddle our children and grandchildren with this joy gigantic debt, that's bad scene of the yet we heard from the president, apparently he told john boehner, we don't have a spending problem in washington. we have a health care problem. it cost too much. then we heard over the weekend nancy pelosi said on the chris wallace show, washington doesn't have a spending problem. do you agree that? >> no, i don't. i think washington has a tremendous spending problem. and the only way we're going to get the deficit in control is to cut spending and have comprehensive entitlement reform. it's unconclusionable to leave this kind of debt to our children and grandchildren and they would not have the same opportunities that we've had if we leave them with this extreme debt here. so we have to accept responsibility to do something about it. i think again that, what dr. carson was saying. >> steve: yeah. i know you're a democrat and you feel that way, but what about the members of your party in

congress? it just seems like don, we love you, but we don't agree with that. >> i think there are many democrats democrats who do. if you look at president clinton's pen you're, his fiscal policy was much more to the center. >> steve: we thank you for joining us on this busy news morning. >> thank you. >> steve: all right. straight ahead on this monday, being top dog ain't easy. it takes a lot of hard work, from doggy treadmills to doggy psychics. todd starnes takes us behind the scenes as the prized pooches get ready for the westminster dog show this week. first on this date in 1992, "i'm too sexy" by right said fred, number one [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego. prego?! but i've bought ragu for years. [ thinking ] wonder what other questionable choices i've made? i choose date number 2!

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>> gretchen: fox news alert. we've been telling about it all morning. pope benedict xvi resigning at the end of this month. the vatican made the shocking announcement two hours ago. the pope says he decided to step down because he's no longer strong enough to carry on with his duties. we're told the conclave will be held by the end of march to elect a new pope. it's the first time in nearly 600 years that a pope has resigned. we'll have a live report at the top of the hour from our own greg palkot. >> steve: meanwhile, in other news, the big apple has literally gone to the dogs. >> brian: westminster kent club show is in town and fox news radio correspondent todd starnes got in on the action live in our green room. that's where todd is. hey, todd. >> that's right, brian. our green room is used to getting us prepped for the show, bagels, coffee. but what happens in the green room of the westminster kennel club dog show, that's a different story. take a look. i'm just across the street from

madison square garden where they will host the 137th annual westminster kennel club dog show. here at the hotel pennsylvania, they're not just hosting human beings, they're hosting some vips. very important pooches. >> i've been showing dogs for over 40 years and when i came to the westminster dog show, i was really surprised that there wasn't something for the dogs to keep them off the street because it's very dangerous, particularly with 25,000 yellow cabs in this town. >> so skewedy davis founded the green room, a salon and spa for the canine crowd, a place where the discerning dog can nibble on organic treats while getting a wash and blowout. and should nature call, they even have his and her fire hydrants. >> so we have an area for the dogs to do their natural functions, a bathing area, a grooming area. >> getting to the big show over at madison square garden can with a really stressful event. you don't want them binging out

on bacon. and nobody likes a fatty. so here in the basement of the hotel pennsylvania is the spectacular gym. it's called the dog tread canine gym. i'm just hanging out with some friends, getting a little workout. hey, stella, you haven't seen any cats around here? >> stella is gearing up for the big day with her junior handler, becker reap, who is currently ranked fourth in the nation. >> this is stella. she's four years old. she's been my -- one of my best friends since she was born. she's great companion and i love to do stuff with her. >> like giving her a workout in the green room. the boy and his dog, a long way from the mountains of home in asheville, north carolina. >> we do training. we love to go on hikes. she loves to swim in the rivers and walk through the forest. >> the top prize at westminster is best in show. but becker may very well have the greatest prize of all. >> i feel like a lot of kids don't have great dog companions these days.

and i have really gotten to bond with her and spend a lot of time with her and have a blast. >> the great american humorror ist said every puppy should have boy. and stella has becker. stella and becker will be competing tomorrow at the garden. we wish them the very best of luck. >> gretchen: it is so fun to go to the westminster behind the scenes. i had an opportunity to do that once. i bet you had a great time. >> i had a blast. by the way, they have not only -- not only do they have great stuff for all the dogs, they also have a dog psychic. >> steve: you need one. >> every dog does. >> steve: am i going to win? don't even bother showing up. thank you very much. >> gretchen: best in show dog will be here bright and early first thing wednesday morning. so don't miss that. >> brian: major university paying off student loans with their post-graduate incomes? doesn't add up really. a pretty generous offer u about is it really a good idea? does it just make kids feel as though they're entitled? we'll report. you decide. >> steve: yep. then the best performances from

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>> gretchen: good morning, everybody. today is monday, february 11, 2013. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time with us today. we begin with a fox news alert. pope benedict xvi is resigning. the breaking details coming up. >> steve: meanwhile, while countries like russia and china are ramping up their militaries, we're gutting ours. but doesn't that put our national security at risk? it would seem like it. we'll talk to general scales coming up. >> brian: plus -- unflattering photos am you ever been posted on facebook? we'll tell you how to clean up your look on-line and get your reputation back. that is straight ahead. "fox & friends" starts right now

>> steve: we didn't see this coming. we start with a fox news alert this hour. stunning news this morning that pope benedict xvi is stepping down at the end of this month. he is the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years. >> gretchen: greg palkot live in london for us with all the latest details. all right, good morning to you, greg. >> hey. shocking news coming in the past two hours or so from the vatican. word that 85-year-old pope benedict xvi will be resigning by the end of the month, specifically on february 28. less than eight years into his papacy. he said in a statement which he released today that he didn't have the strength to fulfill the duties of the office. he said he was aware of the seriousness of this act, but he did it in full freedom. he specifically said that his strength deteriorated in the last few months and that his

advanced age pointed to an incapacity to inadequately fulfill the mission of the pope of the all this sets autopsy conclave, election of cardinals for the new pope. that according to the vatican this morning, is by mid march. they say there will be a new pope probably by easter. that is march 31. a half hour ago, you spoke to my old colleague, greg burke. he is now senior media advisor in the vatican. he said he was surprised like a lot of people were this morning. but that he said he saw the pope slowing down in recent months, so it was not unexpected. there had been reports that he was thinking about doing this. pope benedict was thinking of stepping down in the last few months. now, popes have stepped down in the past, but to show how historic this is, the last time this has happened was 600 years ago, pope gregory xii did that. the pope suggested that a pope who is ill or feeling ill should consider resigning.

so there was a little bit of hint this would happen. and for those of us who watch closely, pope john paul ii in the last few years saw his health deteriorate and suffer and impact the church itself, perhaps pope john paul pope bens thinking about that. pope benedict xvi, the former cardinal ratzinger, a german. he's a conservative. avenues strong enforcer of the strictures of the faith and his papacy was at least in some part impacted by scandals affecting the church, including the broad charges of child abuse through the catholic church. now, guys, this raises the question of who will be picked for the next pope for the billion plus catholics around the world? there is already speculation. thinking perhaps one from africa or south america, the developing world. these are big growth markets for the church. certainly setting autopsy conclave and that black or white smoke coming from the roof of the sistine chapel is high

drama. here we if again. back to you. >> steve: it is. and we may have a new pope by easter. that would be something. greg palkot. >> brian: they both know each other. i say it's dolan. >> steve: do you? >> gretchen: you going out on a limb? >> brian: going dolan. >> steve: he was talking about the odds. i was looking at one of the odds, the odds of an american pope are slim. odds are european. who knows? >> brian: who thought the ravens would win the super bowl? nobody. >> gretchen: i picked them. >> brian: you had them picked before the season? >> no,. >> brian: i'm talking before the season. >> gretchen: all right. let's move on to the weather. that's nice music. we need it. the people down south need it because their homes have been wrecked, dozens injured as a giant tornado tears through a mississippi city. residents in hattiesburg waking up to a day of removing trees and giving thanks for their survival. maria molina has been tracking the storms all night and joins

us from the weather center. good morning to you. >> hi, good morning. that's right. very rough weather hit portions of mississippi, alabama, louisiana, even into eastern texas yesterday during the afternoon, even started during the early morning hours across portions of texas of a strong line of storms pushed eastward. we want to show you images of the damage coming out of one particularly hard hit community which which is in hattiesburg. you can see cars flipped over. we have reports of homes damaged, also some businesses that were damaged as well across the region. you can see those power lines down and a lot of debris, a lot of clean-up that needs to continue over the next couple of days. unfortunately, the weather forecast out here calls for more rain and even a flooding threat. we also have reports that the american red cross, mississippi regional office was damaged in hattiesburg and they did quote tweet out a quote, our hattiesburg office was damaged, but no staff or volunteers

injured. service delivery will not be affected. we'll continue to monitor, a little bit of good news out of that communitiful otherwise 15 tornadoes reported. again, we're expecting more rain here across the southeast, so flooding will be a concern, up to six inches of rain forecast. >> steve: that's a lot for february. all right. thank you very much. >> gretchen: the rest of your headlines. 4,000 cruise ship passengers are currently stranded in the middle of the ocean after a fire breaks out aboard the boat. the cruise ship is in the gulf of mexico and returning on a back up generator now. carnival cruise lines says that the fire was put out right away. no one hurt. listen to this woman on board, she called her husband and told him what was going on. >> she was crying and stuff and said, they have no power. they have no running water. they have no way to use the bathroom. >> gretchen: sounds like a mess. the ship will be fauxed to mexico. it's expected to arrive wednesday. passengers will then be flown to the united states. in california, real life

drama on the set of a reality police show. a helicopter filming for a new discovery military themed show crashed into the canyons just outside l.a., killing all three people on board. the cause remains under investigation. today an american hero will be honored. he ignored his battle wounds to take out the enemy daughter fire fight in afghanistan. he will receive the mediciner of honor from president obama. he will be the fourth living service member awarded the top honor for courage in iraq or afghanistan. he did retire from the army in 2011. >> brian: chris kyle, by the way, he will have his memorial service today. >> steve: at cowboys stadium. >> brian: the grammys last night, anna kooiman has your complete recap of the must see moments. >> hey, hey. music's biggest night did not disappoint. l.l. cool j licked his lips a million times hosting the grammys. opening the show in true taylor

swift fashion, the country pop star gave a jab to ex-lover, singing her song "we are never ever getting back together". ♪ i still love you and i'm like. i'm sorry. i'm busy opening up the grammys and we're never getting back together. like ever. >> no big deal, right? justin timberlake is bringing sexy back. he debuted two new songs. fans have been waiting for years for more music from the triple threat. we got it. grammy fashion, following a memo from cbs that got a lot of attention last week, suggesting grammy participants not reveal too much. many stars like katy perry, rihanna, jlo still pushed the envelope, but not like in years past. >> so, as you can see i read the memo. [ laughter ] >> looking good. then when kelly clarkson won best pop vocal album, she hugged

just about everybody in the crowd and got caught on miranda lambert's dress before giving her girl next door speech. >> i'm so sorry. i got stuck to miranda lambert. this is a story and a song. for later, after alcohol. i'm just kidding, children. i get nervous speaking in front of people. >> don't you love her? the highest honor of the night, album of the year going to the folk rock band, mumford and sons for their album. back to you. >> gretchen: all right. thanks very much for that wrap-up in case you missed it. >> steve: i still don't get why they have an album of the year and record of the year. what the heck is the difference? >> brian: i wish i knew. >> gretchen: i don't know. not one is a single, right? >> steve: i don't know. >> gretchen: let us know if you know. e-mail us or tweet us. a major university paying off student loans when their post-graduation incomes don't add up, a generous offer, but is it a good idea? does it make kids feel more entitled? we'll report and you decide. >> brian: and you thought it was

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is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto-insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. >> gretchen: how would you like to go to college and have the school offer to pay back the loans for you, depending on what your income is when you get out of college? >> steve: beginning in the fall of this year, spring arbor, private university in michigan, is offering a to help incoming freshmen pay off their education loans once they graduate if their post-education graduation income doesn't measure up. >> brian: larry winget is best selling author and straight talker. larry, what do you think about this deal for those students once they got out if they don't get the job they want?

>> you know, this is a heck of a deal. i've heard of no fault auto insurance and no fault divorce. but now we got no fault education. listen, i can about out and i can get the education and then i decide i just don't want to apply myself in the job market, go home and live with mom and dad, join the occupy movement, play my tambourine on the corner and somebody else will pay back my student loans. heck of a deal, isn't it? what is that teaching our kids? >> steve: what do you think it's teaching our kids? we should point out that if you dewpoint make a certain amount, i think if your income is below $20,000, you get reimbursed and it goes up to $27,000. if they educate you and you're not making enough to fit between that scale, they've got this repayment program. as a parent, i would imagine it would be nice to know if we're going to spend tens of thousands of dollars getting our kid into a college, if they can't get him a good paying job, maybe they should help him. >> i totally disagree with that.

they should not help them. see, how well do you in the marketplace is based on how much you apply yourself in the marketplace. this puts all the burden back on the university to make sure that the kid does well after they leave the college. that's sending the wrong message. you can't guarantee that whole thing after they leave your school. your obligation as a college is to make sure you provide the education. it's the obligation of the kid to make sure that they go out and work. you see, you're compensated based on how hard you work, how well you get along with your customers and co-workers and your boss, whether you show up on time, whether you do well in the job. that has nothing to do with your college education. >> gretchen: we should point out that it's a private institution, so it's not like taxpayer dollars are going to pay back these loans. it's the school making the choice. does that change it at all for you? >> nope. this still puts the college in the business of not doing the education, but making sure that kids get a job and do well in the job.

they're trying to guarantee something they can't control and i don't think it's possible. so we need to go back to the whole issue of personal responsibility. if you take out the loan to go to school or buy a car or buy a house or take out a credit card to buy clothes, that loan is your responsibility. no one else's. it's up to you. when we let kids skate on that whole idea of personal responsibility, we're going to ends up with a society that's never going to take responsibility. sends a bad message to the whole country and it's certainly not a good thing for these kids or these parents. these parents better get used to these kids moving back into their bedroom. >> steve: we should point out that apparently this plan will cost the university $12,000 per student who essentially have this insurance. larry, always a pleasure, thank you for joining us live today. >> steve: thank you. >> brian: if you have a tambourine, do they even offer lessons? >> gretchen: we're following a fox news alert. pope benedict xvi making a bombshell announcement this mornings he will resign at the ends of the month.

fox news religion correspondent lauren green will have all the breaking details coming up next. >> brian: are you guilty of this? exposing way too much on your facebook page. well, our next guest has some tips on how you can clean up your profile. first, lauren green, then we'll clean up everybody's profile when someone in my family gets the flu. fact: advil not only relieves body aches and pains that can come with the flu, it also reduces fever fast. relief doesn't get any better than this. advil.

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>> gretchen: announcement from the vatican, pope benedict xvi set to resign at the end of this month. >> brian: february 28. let's bring in lauren green. they say that the chief of staff

and pope benedict's older brother were the only ones who knew about this. >> absolutely, yes, because my sources in rome say they had grummennings of it last night that there were discussions, but they would have a big announcement today. hindsight is always 20/20. when i look back on the year and what he was doing, you can almost speculate that he was getting into position for the next conclave or the next -- >> gretchen: why? f because about a year ago, he had a huge consist tri where he elevated 22 cardinals. not a year later, he had another consistory to elevate more cardinals. that is unprecedents to do have two inside a year. what he was doing was putting the number of cardinals to 120 who were voting cardinals. that brought in the mind of so many people, is he of ill health? is he going to die? is he predicting his death? he wasn't really predicting his death, but he was, it seems to be, predicting he would step down. >> brian: this enclave that they're -- conclave they're putting together, will it be together before february 28? >> it seems they're going to

have a new pope before the end of march, which means it would be before easter. this is another thing that seems to be unprecedented. why during the holiest time of the christian calendar, during lent? lent starts wednesday, ash wednesday. this is all going to happen during one of the highest holy times of the christian calendar. >> gretchen: why do you think? >> i don't know exactly except that i'm speculating perhaps he was very ill and perhaps he is very close to death. i don't know. i don't want to speculate about that because every time i've done stories on the new consistories and new cardinals, the question is always, is the pope of ill health? will he soon die? oh, you know, he's healthy as an 85-year-old can be. but he's still very sickly. so we don't know if this is him anticipating his death. remember, when he became pope, he didn't want to be pope. his idea was that after john paul, he would retire with his brother who is also a priest, and write books, study theology.

this is what his strength was. when he became pope, his brother's book actually said, i just went to bed and turned off the light and rolled over. he was so upset that his brother became pope. this is something that neither one of them wanted. >> gretchen: very interesting. thanks very much. >> brian: it's hard to believe it's been eight years. steve, what do you have coming up? >> steve: glad you asked. from where they're going to what they're eating, people all around the world are sharing everything, it seems like, on social networking sites. so what if somebody says something bad about you or posts an embarrassing picture that could ruin your reputation? it happens all the time. here with some tips on what you can do to clean up your on-line profile, privacy and security expert john sillio, editor of sillio.com. he joins us from denver. good morning tough. >> good morning. >> steve: we're all in control of our own facebook pages. but if -- the reason we were doing this story was because last week, beyonce's people said, hey, there are 33 unflattering pictures of beyonce

on a site, take them down. they said, yeah, right. first tip you say, so the people can try to take down embarrassing stuff is use google alerts, right? >> yeah. if you have google alerts set up for your name, you catch it very quickly and it's easier to take down. once it's replicated throughout the web, it's very hard to get all the different versions down. >> steve: okay. also, if it's my facebook page, i can take stuff down. but if it's somebody else's, what you should do is ask them very politely and try to convince them to take it down. or talk to the site itself, right? >> yeah. sometimes all it takes is asking. a lot of people are very -- a lot of sites are very willing to do it. if that doesn't work, you get a little more adepressive and send a cease and desist letter, or go to the site itself, like facebook. >> steve: here is something, and this is why we called you in because it's a little technical and you can help us figure it

out. redirect attention and push it down the page. okay. how do you do that? >> yeah. so if there is a lot of good content above you, say in a search result that's all positive about you, people don't see the negative stuff. so for example, having good search engine optization, meaning you've got good stories at the top, the bad stories filter to the bottom. then an effective strategy. >> steve: you can hire reputation recovery service burks it costs a lot of money. if folks would like more money, go to sillio.com or www.foxandfriends.com for more information. all right. john, we thank you very much. thanks for joining us on a shortened basis due to the breaking news. thank you. 25 minutes after the top of the hour. their homes were damaged by super storm sandy and now they're being socked by the tax man. a city is claiming their property values have gone up, even though it's rubble in some spots. north korea despises us. the muslim brotherhood wants to destroy us.

so is this really the best time to cut our military? we will take a closer look. "fox & friends" rolls on live from new york. in two minutes [ male announcer ] i've seen incredib things. otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business. because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪

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the sudden resignation of pope benedict xvi. the pope says he's no longer strong enough to carry out his duties. february 28 will be his last day. it could be that we will not know who the new pope is until right before easter time, which would be towards the end of march. i forget the exact date. easter, i believe, is earlier this year than in other years, right? >> steve: they say that we may have a new pope before holy week, which is march 24. this is stunning news. it's the first time in 600 years that a pope has actually resigned. the reason for it? he's simply too weak. he cites a lack of strength. he can not adequately do the job. there was some speculation he may have resigned to avoid the exhausting rush of the easter and holy week engagements. but it is not because the difficulties in the papacy. things like the butler scandal, famous over the last year or so. apparently we also heard from -- >> brian: we didn't follow the

butler scandal. >> steve: that's big. the butl released some things about the pope that were -- and how the vatican worked that was very unflattering. the pope's brother said that his doctor, the pope's doctor said no transatlantic flights, which is tough when you are a globe trotter. >> gretchen: it's interesting because we had lauren green on, now we have father jonathan, good morning. >> good morning. >> gretchen: we want to put you on the spot. one of the things lauren was saying was that the pope never really maybe wanted to be pope, that he wanted to go back and live in german with his brother, who is also a priest, and that maybe that's why now he's resigning, so that he can have his final time on this earth with his brother. do you agree? >> you know, i think you're right and i think lauren reported that very well, that he certainly wasn't looking to be pope. he was 78 years old. who wants to take on a job at 78? >> brian: didn't he get the first ballot right in? >> we don't know. we don't know for sure exactly what happened. but it did take a little while,

and i think what he has done here is a humble act, in my opinion, that today the papacy is different than what it used to be. to me, things happened so quickly, information happens so quickly that it's very helpful to be healthy. >> steve: you made great point earlier when we talked to you regarding the breaking news and that was that this particular pope had watched john paul ii. in the final years of his life, his health deteriorated terribly. you thought maybe this pope, having seen that pope, probably thought, you know what? i owe it to my flock to go ahead and make sure that they have somebody who is strong enough for the job. >> very important issues. for example, pope benedict xvi was in charge of that department that oversaw the sex abuse scandal, the cases. and at the time, john paul ii was very sick and not able to deal with things that i'm sure pope benedict thought needed to be dealt with in a fast way.

as soon as he became pope, he started working on that. so i think realizes, you know, if i'm sick for ten, 15 years and there is some important things going on, is that the best thing for the flock? another thing i think is fascinating is that while he has made such a drastic move here, i think it opens people's eyes up that cardinals, to say, you know with a? as we're going to elect a pope, we want to make sure it's somebody who can really carry on this important mission. >> brian: a younger guy. >> gretchen: so that is what i asked you earlier about whether or not age would be a factor. or will they just focus on the region, because that also seems to be so important. >> in the end, the pope is not a manager. first and foremost, although he has to manage, and so i don't think they're look for the perfect guy to manage, the youngest guy to take on and do a restructuring of the company. they're not looking for that. they're looking for somebody who is going to preserve the court teaching -- core teachings of the church. >> brian: now, you worked in

rome for a long time. >> nine years. >> brian: with a is it like inside, when something like this happens, this titanic, can you bring us inside what's going on on the inside there? >> no one can understand what's going on on the inside of the vatican. it's a world to itself. from everything i've heard and talking to people in rome even today, the cardinals were closest to the pope were shocked themselves. this is not something that he -- he has a twitter account. he didn't even use the twitter account to resign of the come on. like he kept this very quiet. he kept very much to himself. certainly he had been thinking about it for a very long time. people asked me this morningness are you sure there is not something else behind this? there is a scandal? >> i can't say for sure. i've seen too many things that i didn't think i would ever see b. he has said right from the beginning of his papacy that he would be willing or consider resigning if he was unable to carry out his tasks. >> brian: that's what we're

looking at now. >> did he it. >> steve: we heard from greg burke earlier, now the vatican spokesperson, he said that the pope, once he resigned, is actual lea going to live in vatican city. >> you know, my guess is that he's going to be very, very quiet. he's not going to be doing any news conference. >> brian: you keep the pope title or do you go back to your old name? >> else always be a bishop. you always are a bishop of rome. he's the bishop emeritus of rome. i don't think anybody will call him joe any time soon. >> gretchen: these are all logical questions because it hasn't happened in 600 years. >> that's right. >> gretchen: this is a time in history for awful us. >> brian would probably call him joe. >> brian: thanks for justifying my question. >> gretchen: no problem. i'm here for you. >> steve: we knew you were heading someplace today via airplane and you changed your plans. >> i was in line. i might have been going to play golf. >> gretchen: i'm sorry.

>> brian: really? >> i might not have been. >> gretchen: it turned onto to be the latter. i made the right decision. >> steve: did you. this is your beat. thank you, father. now on to another big headline this morning. the extreme weather slamming the country. look at that. tornadoes tearing through the south, injuring dozens of people. maria molina has been tracking things and joins us from the weather center. >> good morning. thankfully that tornado did hit when it was daylight out. so a lot of people were likely able to see the tornado moving through parts of hattiesburg and able to seek shelter and thankfully we had advance warning. today we're not talking about severe weather across portions of the southeast, but flooding from some of those same thunderstorms associated with the large storm system that centered over portions of the great lakes. ahead of this system, we also have moisture moving in through areas across the northeast, new england, some light snow expected. nothing too major in terms of accumulation. but it will be enough to produce some slippery conditions on the roadway. please be careful during your morning commute.

freezing rain advisories, also posted across the tri-state area, northeastern pennsylvania and portions of upstate new york. as we head westbound, we do have blizzard warnings in effect across western minnesota, up to 16 inches of snow out here. these warnings extend throughout the later morning hours into early afternoon. winter storm warnings as well posted across northeastern portions of minnesota and also into wisconsin. something else to note is that tonight and in through tomorrow, we will be seeing about six inches of snow across portions of the texas panhandle and oklahoma panhandle. temperatures very mild across northeast. that will be helping out with snow melt from our last nor'easter. friday to saturday of last week. in the studio, i want to mention that there could be a little nor'easter wednesday into thursday. doesn't look too major. still lots to traffic but this weekend looks like we could get another nor'easter. so lot to track in the weather center. >> steve: all right. storms all over the place. thank you. >> keep your snow shovel handy. >> brian: if we get another nor'easter, i wonder if the "new

york post" will rekindle that headline, i wonder if god hates us. now to the rest of your headlines, southern california, someone thought they spotted an ex cop, chris dorner. shoppers were escorted out as cops searched the store. it was one of the several tips that came in after the city announced a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture. >> this is an act, and make no mistake about it, of domestic terrorism. this is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. >> brian: riverside police also identified officer michael crane as the veteran officer dorner is accused of killing in an ambush last week. he'll be laid to rest this week. >> gretchen: talk about adding insult to injury, less than four months after super storm sandy hit new york city, now it's hiking taxes on homeowners. residents in brooklyn and staten

island have already received higher bills. the now rate is set to take effect july 1. property owners who oppose the hike have until mid march to appeal. >> brian: allall right. that's your headlines as we move ahead. north korea despises us as we tell you what's coming up next. the muslim brotherhood wants to destroy us as we've been over and over again. so is this really the best time to gut our military? we will take a closer look with a army general. >> steve: and we're $16 trillion in debt, but nancy pelosi says we don't have a spending problem. wait 'til you hear who she's blaming for our mounting debt. plus, a little more from last night's glittering grammys. hello, justin. ♪ hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios

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>> steve: moments ago, timothy cardinal dolan here in new york reacting to the news that pope benedict xvi will resign at the end of this month. >> i would have to say, my affection for and my admiration for pope benedict xvi is skyrocketed. it was already high, but i love him so much as a brother bishop, as the bishop from rome who appointed me to the archdiocese of new york, to you all, to the holy father who made me a cardinal. and i just always admired him as a scholar, as a priest. >> steve: joining us now on the phone is father robert sirr irrigation co from grand rapids, michigan, an expert on the conclave, when the cardinals will pick a new pope. good morning to you, father. we understand there will be a conclave probably starting between the end of this month and holy week when weather they pick a new pope. right? >> yes. it's unprecedented about this is usually the pope dies and then they have to have a whole set of

funeral masses and period of grief. but in this case, it's a resignation, so in the modern concept, this hasn't happened before. >> steve: that's right. it hasn't happened for 600 years. and i was looking on-line and a bunch of people were saying, can a pope resign? we just always thought he died in office. >> well, it's in canon law. benedict himself, when he was cardinal ratzinger spoke about it a number of times. he's always seen himself as fragile and delicate. he was of the kind of -- he want the kind of pope that john f. pn paul ii was. he always conserved his energy. he always saw himself as that. on the other hand, he comes from a family of long lived people. his mother died in her 90s. her sister died in his 90s. his brother who is older than him is still alive. >> steve: father joining us on the phone right now, thank you very much. >> good to be with you. >> steve: good to have you.

gretch? >> gretchen: thank you. nancy pelosi's comments this weekend coming as a shock to many people all across america. listen to this. >> nothing brings more money to the treasury of the united states than investments in education of the american people. so you need to recognize that. which cuts really help pus which cuts hurt our future? cuts in education, scientific research and the rest are harmful and they are what are accepted by the sequestration. so it is almost a false argument to say we have a spending problem. >> gretchen: so many people heard that and they thought america doesn't have a spending problem then? here to comment, columnist and fox news contributor, murdoch. good morning to you. >> good to see you. >> gretchen: what did you make of that? there was a recent fox poll last week we talked about it that 83% of americans actually do think that we have a spending problem. they obviously don't see it the way nancy pelosi does. >> i think nancy pelosi to a degree is correct. she says washington does not have a spending problem and to a

degree she's right. they have a spending addiction. she says it's education, no. almost everything, the money is pouring out from almost every direction across the country. you've got the green jobs being created, about $575,000 per job created and an $838 billion stimulus that stimulated nothing. 7-point #% unemployment. we have obamacare coming down the pike at $2.5 trillion. so this is spending that didn't have to happen. nancy pelosi and barak obama pushed this through and here we are paying for this. this will be our fifth year most likely with deficits above $1 trillion. >> gretchen: the interesting thing about education spending is that i think most americans would be in favor of putting more money into educating their children if the results proved that we're actually becoming smarter as a society. but we're not. we spend more on education and the kids are doing worse. >> it is very paradoxical.

we're spending more money, the spending rate keeps going up. you look at test scores dropout rates, we're pretty much flat or falling. you do have some states on a state by state basis where they spend less money and have better results. iowa and utah are examples. >> gretchen: what do you think that the president will talk about with regard to spending tomorrow night on the state of the union? >> i think he'll say we need a balanced approach w. need to limit our spending, deficits are a problem and do what he always does, is spend more money. he gives great speeches. they're wonderful. but look at the actual actions and its ongoing spending, ongoing deficits, 50% increase in the national debt. we're up to $60.5 trillion national debt. we'll be up by the end of the year. i don't think any his budgets balanced in any of the years. the republicans should kill some

programs and kill some of this activity wiping us out. >> gretchen: thanks so much. >> thank you. >> gretchen: coming up, taliban despises us. the muslim brotherhood wants to destroy us. can we afford to make defense cuts then right now? general bob scales next. [ male announcer ] how do you make america's favorite recipes? just begin with america's favorite soups. bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. or best-ever meatloaf. go to campbellskitchen.com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

>> i'm bill hemmer. nothing like a bombshell to start the week. the pope is resigning, full and complete reaction on this breaking story. 67 million american catholics. and a world of intrigue for who is the next leader of the church. there is news on the manhunt in california. epic snowfall as many scramble this morning. martha and i will see you in nine short minutes here on "america's newsroom." brian, back to you. >> brian: unless congress cuts a deal on our debt by march 1, our

military will face deep cuts. is this something we can afford, especially when we have so many enemies around the world, like north korea, the muslim brotherhood, growing throughout the middle east, china and russia doubling their arsenals? joining us now, retired army major general bob scales. general, we're talking about cutting another $40 billion out if sequester takes place. bob gates already made cuts before he left. >> right. remember now, the army is down almost a billion dollars over ten years already. the army took 63% of that cut. and now particularly the army is looking at another cut in what's called the operations in maintenance fund, brian. that is the money that's needed for repair parts and training time, which means that if this sequester goes into effect, we're going to have soldiers who can't train, fighter pilots who can't fly and sailors who can't drive ships. remember, the fighting edge is what makes the american military the best in the world. and that edge can be lost very,

very quickly. so we have ten years of combat experience stacked up in iraq and afghanistan. god forbid if we lose that in the year ahead. >> brian: when did you first break into the military? what year? >> '66. >> brian: so talk about the threat then as opposed to now. people are under the impression that the threat has receded. has it? [ laughter ] well, i think the people in tehran would love to have us all believe that. you can bet that our enemies are reshaping their own strategies based on what's happening in this country. at least the perception that the american military is withdrawing from the world and becoming weaker. this encourages iran to develop a nuclear weapon. it encourages north korea to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile. it encourages al-qaeda all around the world to redo their counter attacks against america. >> brian: we look at the fact that the president-elected not to help out the syrian rebels after they had been identified the best we could. on top of that, we never responded to the death of our americans in benghazi. now we tell an aircraft carrier,

the abraham lincoln not to patrol the persian gulf and then talk about these historic cuts. what is the message? >> well, the message is, at least to our enemies, which is the important message, brian, is that the united states is withdrawing slowly but surely, from a dominant role in the world and as you know, most of our wars since the end of world war ii have been caused by the enemy miscalculating us. north korea, the north vietnamese, saddam hussein, you can roll down the list of unfor nate wars, started by the enemy who thought we were weak, brian. >> brian: so now if this sequester takes place, by the way, congressman upton telling us it's unavoidable. looks like we're going into it. if they told you cut 40 billion, the problem was, general, they have not been preparing to cut $40 billion. everybody thought they would get a deal on this. now what is it like inside the pentagon today? >> oh, my gosh. it's just awful.

i talked to a friend on monday who told me that the army is going to cut its straining budget -- training budget 78%. look, i've been through this three times. after vietnam, during the hollow army in the carter years, the peace dividend in the '90s where the military was cut, i think, too quickly. none of those three can hold a candle to what the military is going through today, brian. >> brian: wow. general scales, thanks so much. we'll see where this goes. even though a last-minute deal does not seem likely. thank you. >> thanks, brian. >> brian: more "fox & friends" three minutes away. and we have more on the grammys. ♪ hi. hi.

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♪ ♪ . >> gretchen: that was fun with carry on from the grammys last night. >> brian: it was raining there. >> steve: it looked like it. >> brian: real quick, chris kyle is being memorialized, this navy seal. i did a half hour interview with him which we posted on the web site. it was real good. it's a good perspective on who he was. >> steve: fantastic. that's going tra